Back to Nepal - Part 2 - Rest and Relaxation

I finally arrived in Lalbandi in the late evening, it had taken me the best part of a day to reach there from Ilam, on 4 different buses and being squashed against several different strangers. Bhinajyu, Didi's husband, was waiting for me at the bus stop and I rode pillion on the back of his cycle the few kilometres back to their house in a village outside Lalbandi. They had finished planting their rice a week or so before and were now taking things a bit easier.

Didi's house, just outside Lalbandi

Didi's two sons, Bibek and Bipin - I did a lot of exploring with Bibek during my year in Nepal, see here

Lalbandi is in the Terai, the plains area to the south of Nepal. As such, during the monsoons it gets a lot of rain from the Himalaya above it, and when it's not raining it's roasting hot, normally 40 degrees celsius. I spent my few days in Didi's house sleeping and keeping out of the sun. It was great to just sit back and do very little, the walking in Ilam and then the bus journey had taken it out of my legs, they were not only aching a little, but bruised from the small seats.

When I arrived at Didi's house, Bhinajyu pointed at their buffalo and said that she was due to give birth any time soon. The pregnancy for a buffalo lasts about 11 months apparently, and they were now looking forward to getting some creamy milk. Even better, in the days immediately after the birth the buffalo produced a high colostrum  milk, bigauti in Nepali, which was very tasty. Obviously the calf would have to have some of the milk to ensure it had all the vitamins it needed, but the buffalo would produce too much, so we would have that.

A few days later the buffalo began looking more and more uncomfortable, and in the evening, just before tea after a very short labour the calf was born. It fell to the ground and crumpled in a heap. We waited. The calf didn't move. Was it still-born? The mother looked up at Bhinajyu, it was her first calf and she probably wasn't sure what was supposed to happen now. The calf eventually gave a little cough and came to life.

The calf minutes after being born, Bhinajyu cleaning it up

Bhinajyu rushed in and cleared the calf's mouth from the afterbirth. The buffalo then moved in an started to show a little motherly affection to the calf, before returning to its food. For the next few days the calf got stronger, stood up, walked and one day drank all the milk from its Mum. We ate the bigauti, which when boiled for a long time became quite sweet, and full of vitamins.

Monsoon season is also the time for snakes in the Terai. I had been warned for the last few times I had visited Lalbandi that I would have to be careful about snakes, but I still had never seen one. I wasn't sure if I would be scared to see a snake or not, but I was just very curious. So, one day Bibek and I went to look for snakes, and to visit their fields that were now full of sugar cane - ukhu in Nepali. The snakes would come out during the day as the sugar cane fields wouldn't provide them anywhere cool to lie, and they would lie on the pathways between the fields. I had heard there were snakes the thickness of my leg that regularly sat out.

Bibek took me out to their fields, and showed me a field with banana plants in. Apparently an elephant had come through here a couple of nights before and eaten some of the bananas - I could see some of the footprints it had made. Then we walked through the sugar cane, looking out for snakes. But as we emerged from the field, we had seen none. I was slightly relieved, but a little disappointed as well. I asked Bibek what he would have done if he had seen a snake, he said he would run, and I have a feeling that I would have done the same thing.

Bibek with the sugar cane (left) and bananas (right)

However, a day later my curiosity about what my reaction to snakes was fed as a snake made a dash towards the veranda of the house where Bhinajyu and I were talking. I wasn't scared, it was quite small and I heard the reassuring words in my ear "it's not poisonous".

The non-poisonous snake. But still a snake!

Then all too quickly it was time to leave, from Lalbandi I was heading to Pokhara, the main tourist area in Nepal outside of Kathmandu. I was in Pokhara to meet Narendra Limbu, the chairman of the Pahar Trust. The Pahar Trust is an NGO that develops schools and community health posts in rural locations in the hills of Nepal. It is supported greatly from the UK by the Rotary Club. During a presentation to the IMechE in Bristol in March a supporter came and talked to me about the possibility of putting pico or micro hydro into any of these sites to electrify them. So, I visited the office and had a good chat with them. Although my research I'm doing I don't think will be able to directly help them, I was able to put them in touch with some people that can, which was great. I looked over some of their projects, and they seem to do some fantastic work. They have completed over £1 million of projects now, and are still going strong. I spent the rest of the time in Pokhara near the lake people watching and avoiding the rain, which at times flooded the roads.

Phewa Taal in Pokhara

From Pokhara I was going to head to a new place for me, Gorkha district, to visit a school supported by Learning Planet that wanted to install a pico hydro set to power some lights in the school. Quite exciting!

SAM

Back to Nepal - Part 1 - Tea and Hydro

In the middle of July I headed back to Nepal to have a holiday, catch up with some of my friends over there, try to learn a few more things about the actual implementation of pico and micro hydro and speak to people who now are electrified to see what they see the benefits are.

The first few days were taken up with rest. The previous 3 weeks had really taken it out of me, I was so tired but my mind was still working overdrive and sleeping was a real problem. The continual fly past from the mosquitos didn't help with sleep either. But after a few days I was relaxed and my sleep got better and better. I ate the Nepali staple food of daal bhaat twice a day, went for wanders around Patan where I was staying and watched some truly hideous Indian TV (so many talent shows and bad adverts - my favourite being the Bangur Cement advert when a little old man says Bangur Cement, similar to these).

I visited KAPEG again in Dhulikhel, who had been working with PEEDA (from my year out) on the low head pico hydro axial flow turbine project. They had redesigned the electronic load controller that allowed the voltage to drop below the reference voltage for a short time. This allowed motors to be started with the large inrush current they draw. This is a significant move for pico hydro controllers, as this will allow more industry to be used from the site, bringing cash into village communities. KAPEG had also installed a test site in Panauti, Kavre, where the turbine was installed beside a traditional Nepali pani ghatta, as originally envisioned by the designer. The site was installed next to a irrigation canal that was already constructed meaning that there was only minimal civil works needed. The site provided electricity to a school and a local chicken farm, and now could be used to drill, grind and cut material.

A traditional Nepali pani ghatta

The low head axial turbine casing and induction machine as a generator

The ghatta and turbine side by side in Panauti

Alongside the work KAPEG had been doing, PEEDA had promoted the turbine unit all across South Asia. They had received orders from Bhutan and India, which showed the potential of the project. They had finished their one year project, so during my second week held a workshop to present all the work done with the turbine, from the beginning of the project. This project is very close to my heart, as it is the project that I worked on whilst at PEEDA, and had inspired me to do the PhD. I was very happy that PEEDA had finally managed to get some movement with it.

Pico Axial Turbine Workshop (photo from PEEDA website)

After the workshop I left Kathmandu for a 2 week tour around Nepal. I first headed back to Ilam to see what they thought now they had electricity. I had visited the village of Amchowk last year, where my friend Krishna Panthi was instructing them on the installation of a 28kW micro hydro unit. Now they had it, what did they do with it and what did they think? To get to Ilam was not an easy trip. Last year I flew to Bhadrapur, but this year I decided to take the bus as it was a lot cheaper - around £10 compared to over £100 for flying. The downside was that it took 2 days to reach Ilam Bazar, instead of the half day it would take flying, before another day's jeep ride and walk to Amchowk. As I had arrived in monsoon season, the roads were impassable in many places, forcing a 3 to 4 hour walk to reach the village. Krishna was no longer in Ilam, working in another district, so I went out to Amchowk with NCDC, a renewable energy NGO in Ilam who I also met last year. They were going to a site nearby to do a commissioning test, so I tagged along. In Amchowk, I met with some of the villagers and asked them what they thought the best thing was. They all answered the same thing, ujaalo - the brightness. Before they were dependent on kerosene lamps for light at night, with a few torches. Now, with the energy saving lightbulbs they could see so much better, and even with the 'zero watt' incandescent bulbs - used as they were 10 times cheaper than energy saving bulbs - the light was so much brighter than the kerosene lamps. Alongside the bulbs, people used the power for TVs, radios, mobile phone charging and the community had invested in 3 mills that they ran to process rice and maize. There was also a computer institute that ran classes for locals and a couple of people had their own computer too.

The site in Amchowk last year

The site in Amchowk this year, finished and generating for the last 13 months

A 'zero watt' bulb in Amchowk

I also visited the village of Ekatappa which I had visited last year. They had recently finished their micro hydro system too, and had been running for about one month. As with Amchowk, they powered TVs, mobiles etc. It was interesting that in Ekatappa, as with Amchowk, when there was power, people ran their bulbs, charged their phones, even if it was bright outside. I supposed that this was the advantage of hydropower, the power is always there, you don't need to pay for more fuel to provide it, so you might as well use it whilst you can.

Ekatappa's Deu Mai Micro Hydro project

Ilam is the centre of the Nepali tea industry, and so in Ilam Bazar I went for a walk through the chiya bari - tea gardens. They are a most amazing place a very strange place to wander.

The Ilam chiya bari

From Ilam, I headed to Lalbandi to see Didi and Bibek, who I spent a lot of time with during my year in Kathmandu. The road to Lalbandi passed by the Koshi river. 3 years ago the Koshi burst its banks and flooded across Nepal and India causing widespread devastation and loss of life (news reports from the time can be seen here). However, still in Nepal, the road across the Koshi had not been rebuilt fully, several sections still washed away and people's houses still temporary. I did wonder whether these people had been forgotten, once the initial emergency is over, how does life go back to how it was before? What has been done to prevent this happening again? Well, from the news I watched they still have been doing emergency work on the river dyke to ensure it remains firm, more firefighting than fixes though.

The dykes along the skyline

The rebuilt houses

The Koshi Barrage - meant to prevent the type of flooding that happened

That's all for part one, there still more to come. Lalbandi - Pokhara - Gorkha then returning to Kathmandu for Janai Purnima!

SAM

Busy Bee

Over the last 3 weeks since returning from Nepal I have hardly stopped. I completed 36 experiments over 2 weeks, looking at the extremes again, this time with angle included. To get to 30 degrees angle, I had to make a few alterations to the rig, as I wasn't able to get the jet into the cup from the original position. It also showed me a simple way of moving the position of the jet in the cup. Previously I had been moving the jet itself up and down, and had to ensure each side was at the correct angle and the cross beams were level, but I found I could move the wheel up and down, so I could keep the jet in the same position. This has saved me time and a lot of hassle. Sometimes I wish I saw these simple things before though...

From these tests, I've found that both 10 and 20 degree inclination angles of the jet produce a good efficiency, and that aiming towards the top of the cup is best for these. I also did some optimisation tests, culminating in doing 11 tests in my final day at uni - a very long and tiring day, but this meant that I have found the optimum position for the jet in the cup, and now should be able to get a good consistent efficiency from it. Hopefully now the main part of the testing is complete, there may be a few tests left to do, but the main part is done, fingers crossed!

Testing in the hydrolab

As well as testing, I've been working on the paper for the Renewable Energy Journal. Although it is based on conference paper from WREC, I have had to modify it, so it is more of a coherent story. Also, the journal allows us to give more details of the analysis and background to the research in the paper. I have had a lot of help from Julian in this - he said he was in paper writing mode - which has been fantastic, as he has had many papers published in Renewable Energy, as well as other journals, so can add his experience of this. It's now just about ready to go, I'm just waiting for the formal invite.

Outside uni, in the three weekends there have been, I've not been in Bristol at all. The first weekend I went home to Cornwall to see my parents, who I hadn't seen for a long time. I had a great time at home, even if was just for a short while. We went for a wander up on the moor and Mum cooked a roast. What more do you need from a trip home - apart from maybe your clothes washed for you!

This was then followed by 2 weddings. The first was Olly's wedding in Sevenoaks, who I went to Paris with at the beginning of June. I was one of the three best men, and had the responsibility of holding the ring - very very scary - and making a speech. The speech went OK, principally because I decided not to force too many jokes into it. Olly had asked me to do a little in French as well, he was marrying a French girl, but I decided that my French was not up to scratch and so gave a translation for all the French people (thanks Google!). So, I'm sorry Olly that I didn't speak any French, something I felt bad about when everyone else who gave speeches spoke both languages. Olly had all the men dressed in Ascot Morning Suits, which sadly involved a top hat. I looked very silly as you can see below. It was, however, a really good day, and I was very glad to share it with Olly and Aurelie.

Posing for photos at Olly's wedding

Me in the top hat (yes, I know I can't smile with my teeth very well hence the strained grin, sometimes I feel like Chandler in Friends!)

The second wedding was a friend of Hannah's from her undergraduate course. This was out to the north of Bristol, about an hours drive away. Hannah's friend, Rachel, was a wedding planner, and so her wedding was of course very well done. The little church they were married in was a beautiful little country church, and the reception was in the venue that Rachel worked. Again, it was a really fun day, but I have to say at the end of it I was very glad to sleep!

Rachel and her husband Chris

And now, I'm off to Nepal again. This time for a month. I'm hoping to get back to Ilam to see how Amchowk is now with electricity. I'm also planning on meeting up with a few NGOs to have a chat about some pico hydro projects they're interested in, and hope to visit a few current and potential sites whilst I'm there too. And, of course, visit my adopted family there, see Bibek hopefully and get to travel around a bit, and relax.

Photo from Amchowk last year

Relaxing Nepali times are ahead!

SAM

Another Nepali Wedding

I've just come back form the shortest visit I've ever taken to Nepal. All the times I have stayed in Nepal, I've lived at my friend Bidur's house in Lalitpur, to the south of the Kathmandu Valley. The youngest daughter in the family was getting married to an officer in the Nepali Army. As she was by all effects my own sister, I went to the wedding.

I found a cheap ticket via Delhi, a  route I was loathe to take as last time I did it meant sitting outside Delhi airport for 8 hours until I could check in for my flight. However, I was assured that there was now an all new transit terminal and I could just transit as I would through the Gulf. At Heathrow, I became rather excited as we pulled in as I could see the Qantas A380 sitting on the tarmac. When I had checked in and went through to departures there were a further 2 - Emirates and Singapore - sat there too. I was so excited I phoned my Dad. And Hannah. And my friends. (There is a reason for the total geekyness, I used to work on the A380 stress calcs when I was in Atkins.)

Being an airplane geek…

The flight to Kathmandu was nothing spectacular, Delhi airport was how it was promised with a clean and rather pleasant terminal. But the approach into Kathmandu is never normal. On our descent into Kathmandu the Himalaya poked up through the clouds, like stone icebergs floating in the sky, beautiful but deadly. I had so often flown into Kathmandu, but it had always been cloudy, this was the first time I had seen the mountains and I have to say I was lost for words.

The Himalaya on the approach to Kathmandu (can you tell the mountains from the clouds?)

When I arrived at the house, preparations for the wedding were well under way. All the furniture and electrical goods had been bought, they had been shopping to buy clothes for the new in-laws, family were arriving from the southern Terai plains and food was being prepared. Saru was there with her son, whom I had christened Bob. He had grown a lot since I had seen him last...

Bob - 1 year ago

Bob - this year...

I met an old Atkins colleague of mine, Saz, in Boudhanath, near where he was working. He had been in Nepal for 3 months or so, and was now moving on to Thailand. It was interesting to hear his impression of Nepal, the good bits and not so good.

The day before the wedding, I went to the groom's house with Achut, the Priest, a neighbour carrying some trays with gifts for the family. The taxi wound its way to the bride's new house, through fields and up hills. We arrived and gave the trays over to the groom's family before being fed and returning back home. In the afternoon, we went to the party palace where the wedding would take place to build the little temple, around which tomorrow's ceremony would be based.

Building the little temple - leaves, leaves and more leaves…

The day of passed in a bit of a blur, there were many different little ceremonies involving just the groom, just the bride and the couple together. I was very humbled to be able to take part, washing their feet at one point and attempting to carry the groom - which I failed at, so just walked with. I think the story is best told in photos, so here are a selection. I'm afraid i can't really expand on the meaning or reason behind any of the different parts of the puja but I'm there are guides that can explain it such as here.

Rachhu before the wedding, dressed in her red sari.

After moving to the wedding venue, the groom's party appears with trays covered in food, clothes, fruit and spices.

The groom arrived in a horse and carriage, as he was an Nepal Army Officer.

The bride and groom together

The groom's first puja ceremony

The beginning of the washing of the feet.

My turn to wash the bride and groom's feet. As part of this, wash the palms of the hand, top of the feet and then splash water over your head that has been dripped over their feet before drinking a little of the water as well. Then the tika is added to on the foreheads, whilst saying a prayer for the couple.

A puja for the whole of the bride's family with a shell.

Time to eat - there was lots of food laid on, Bibek managed to eat 7 ice creams…

After eating the bride and groom sit for some more puja, this time at the little temple we made the previous day.

The bride throws rice on to the fire, leading her husband around the little temple.

More puja sat down

Adding of the sindur powder

More puja sat down - note they have now changed positions though…

A game, where the younger relatives, normally girls, of the bride hide the groom's shoes to get money from him…

Achut carrying his sister around the little temple and the horse and carriage. I was supposed to carry the groom but failed - my excuse was that he was a little too short and I had to bend down a long way. Don't believe me? Damnation…

Leaving in the horse and carriage.

I returned to the UK a couple of days later, with a slightly poorly stomach but the knowledge that I'd be back back again soon. 

A bit of a strange thing happened on my way home though. Transiting through Delhi again, I went to the toilet. The man in the cubicle next to me was using a lot of water from the little tap next to the toilet, meant for washing yourself after doing your business. The floor in my cubicle was getting very wet. I realised that he was taking a shower there, as I looked down at the floor one time the reflection of a naked Indian man greeted me. I didn't look down again, needless to say. This was confirmed when a bar of soap shot into my cubicle quickly followed by a soapy had to retrieve it. I was a bit unsure whether to laugh or to feel violated. Maybe a suggestion for Indra Gandhi Airport - install some showers in the departures!

SAM

Inconsistency

Firstly, a bit of exciting news. I got an email from the organisers of WREC a week ago saying that I was awarded the best paper in the hydropower applications section of the conference, which was fantastic news. I've now been invited to write up the paper for Renewable Energy Journal, which I'll do over the coming weeks.

Notice on WREC Website for best papers

Certificate for best paper in hydropower applications at WREC

I wish sometimes things would be a bit simpler. I've been doing a lot of testing recently, and by that I mean sitting in the lab hours on end recording torque and speed readings at different positions. Each run of the turbine I do takes about half an hour, when you allow for getting the right flow rate to produce the right head at the nozzle, then waiting for all the air to purge from the system before actually recording the data, which may only take about 10 minutes or so. However, I have managed to be fairly productive, and got all the variables extreme testing that I wanted to do done. I then went on to consistency testing and found that my results are fairly consistent, less than 5% variation which is quite good. But this has also shown a problem. During the initial testing I managed to get a maximum efficiency of about 85%, during the extremes testing this was down to 80% and now during this consistency testing I've got up to 88%. Why is this variation happening?

Well, I think I've found what it is due to, slight changes in position. With the jet a little bit too high, the efficiency drops off quickly, and with my aiming system, I've not been able to be more accurate in position than about 5mm. I've also found that all the pipe I have is slightly bowed, so when it is rotated about its clamped position it gives hits the cups in different positions. Now I know what's going on, I can at least fix the rotation of the pipe and so should be able to make this more consistent. It is quite frustrating though…

Photo of the testing as the jet hits the cup

I've decided to look at the angle the jet hits the cup at as well, an reduced angle would mean increased change in momentum at the cup giving more torque and power, but may have an adverse effect in terms of how the jet interacts with the cup, as it may cut it off earlier. Whereas, with an increased angle there will be less momentum of the water in the direction of rotation, but it may be able to enter the cup better, ensuring more of the water works towards generating the power. So, I'll have to do these experiments, a further set of 24.

A couple of third year undergraduates here had done some work on cup design and had designed what they thought would be a more efficiency cup, so I had this rapid prototyped and tested it against the standard cups. We got a good step change in efficiency. Unfortunately, however, I managed to break them, I didn't design out all the stress razors, and the cups fractured along one of the plastic layers which is really frustrating. But still, a bit positive that it provided an increase in efficiency.

Rapid prototyped cups

Comparison with bought in cups

I've been busy outside uni as well, being me. I was in Paris at the beginning of the month for my friend Olly's 'this-isn't-a stag-party-it's-more-of-a-pre-wedding-bash'. There are three of us best men, but as we're all fairly quiet it wasn't a raucous bash. In fact Olly organised it himself - and we went out to a restaurant to eat from their tasting menu - 5 courses with 5 different wines. The food was amazing, pricey too. Then I spent a week being backstage at the Redgrave for Sweet Charity. It was fantastic fun, I do enjoy doing things that are completely different from my day job, and this certainly was. However, it did mean I spent the week being totally knackered! The day after it all finished, Hannah did the Race for Life [race for life] in Bath and so I stood around in the rain for a couple of hours watching people walk and run around 5kms. I think they managed to raise a lot of money, so that was brilliant.

Eating the tasting menu at a good (but pricey) restaurant in Paris (L-R me, Olly - the groom, Olly's brother Andrew)

I'm off to Nepal now for a week, my Nepali sister is getting married so I'm off to be at that. I actually have a trip planned for the middle of July too, that time is for a month, but I had bought the tickets before I knew about the wedding, and I have to be back for the beginning of July for Olly's wedding. All go still!

SAM